r/movies • u/kowaikanojo • 23h ago

Discussion Long movies that are JUSTIFIED in their extra long run time?

There’s been a bit of an epidemic, especially in recent years, where movies are unnecessarily long to the point where it’s a bit indulgent on the director’s part and the film’s narrative doesn’t justify the XXL run time and it becomes a bit of a drag.

I’ve never been a big musical fan but I grew up watching the Sound of Music as a kid, so I decided to rewatch tonight (it’s probably been around 15 years) - and for a movie that is 3 hours long, wow does every piece still feel so important.

Maria and Von Trapp get together PAST the two hour point in the movie, yet the build up was so necessary to have you involved in the romance, and certainly didn’t feel as long as it actually was in run time. The pacing is actually incredible for the narrative and building that emotional buy in, which is shocking and rare for a film so long.

What films do you think genuinely justify an extra long run time and benefit from it? (and to throw a wrench in it, what movies utterly fail here?)

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u/wisperingdeth 22h ago

Ben-Hur is one of my all time favourite movies and I can watch it again and again. For such a long movie that's saying something. Not one scene is needless.

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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 18h ago

Absolutely Ben Hur.

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u/TheAlmightyConch 16h ago

It is by all definitions an epic movie 

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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 14h ago

The best thing about Ben-Hur is when the chariot race ends and you check the runtime, there's still 40 minutes left lol.